Failures Redeemed
by Gelado Pocket-mouse
Summary: In the final moments before death, Brom thinks back on his life, and the promises he has failed to keep. One-shot. Note- Not JUST angst, there is some positiveness at the end.


**A/N: After reading this multiple times with a critical eye, it doesn't seem very good anymore. Give me tips to improve my writing if you have any. Also, I feel like I overused the word 'son'. Would you agree?**

_I will protect you._ I had promised her, a blue dragonet, still covered in the membrane of her own egg, cocking her head at a boy. A boy, was all I was then, a life time ago. _I will keep you safe. _I knew I had broken that promise, the second her body went limp in my arms, losing the battle inside of her. The moment I felt part of my very soul, my entire life, my heart, being ripped from my chest. I broke my promise. I had failed. The partner of my heart was dead and gone forevermore. I had failed Saphira. My tears fell onto her cold, once brilliant scales, pleading for her to stay. But she could not. Because I had broken my promise. My promise to my Saphira.

Even as I had thought it impossible to do without her, I grew, I went on. Not a day went by that wasn't filled with thoughts of her, bittersweet memories we had shared. I tried to join her, but I couldn't. What would my Saphira say to that? I couldn't stand to disappoint her. My time to enter the void was yet to come. I had to go on.

For years I saw no point in going on. But I had to. I had to avenge my Saphira. And, eventually, I was glad I was still among the living. My pain payed of when I met her. She was in league with _him_, that horrible, oath braking bastard who had sent Saphira into the void. The wretch I had once called a friend, now a fiend. Morzan. But the first time my lips met Selena's, I knew she at last saw him as I did. Where as before he had seemed a great man in her eyes, just as he had once seemed to mine, she eventually recognized him for what he was. As much as she desired to, she could not leave him, such is the binding of the ancient tongue. But I was there for her. _Worry not. You're safe with me._ What a lie it had been. Even as I was her's and she mine, even after we had made sweet love, she was rent from me too. Sickness befell her, and I stayed by her side, pleading as I had with my dragoness, but she two was not victorious in the battle for life. I had again failed.

I slew him, the giver of my suffering, just as he had taken my Saphira, my Selena, as Undbitr penetrated his flesh for the final time. I was triumphant. I had failed Saphira. I had failed Selena. But I had succeeded in avenging their deaths. It would never bring them back, though.

As one would imagine, I gave little to no promises from then on. But even after all my failures, there was still my son. He was the only one left, who I had not failed. My precious, oblivious son. _I will protect you, Eragon. _Even though he never knew of it, I promised his safety too. But the price. I could never tell him. I knew this. For with this knowledge, his safety, the barriers keeping him from his father's enemies and allies alike, from the various complexities of politics and war, would crumble. And he too would be thrust into battles and loss, like I had. I could not bear to do that to my own son. So many times, I tried to tell him. Watching him grow from a babe to a lad, being raised by someone else in front of my eyes, was excruciating. I couldn't help but wonder, what would have been different, if he knew?

For a while, I thought I had succeeded. He had gone through a normal child hood, the simple life of a farmer, and no tragedies befell him. Fate be a misleading and cruel mistress. For the moment I laid eyes on his scarred palm, the moment a young sapphire dragoness who reminded me so much of my own Saphira emerged, a symbol of the Riders, the glorious, beautiful Saphira who could end the war and end the dark tyrant's rain, dread filled what was left of my heart. The horrible realization came, as it had come twice before, that I had failed. There was no way of protecting him now. He _was_ the Rider. The barriers keeping him from the complexities of politics and war _would _crumble. And he _would _be thrust into battles and loss. Suffering, stifling loss. He would never live an honest, simple life now. And like I had my Saphira, like I had my Selena, I had failed my son.

Now, as I draw my last and think back on my life, the failures oddly do not feel so painful anymore. As I look up into the brown, weeping eyes of my son, I know I have yet succeeded. My son will never live a normal life. But it is okay. I have failed Saphira. I have failed Selena. I have failed my son. But none of it manners, for I have given him my gift, more than anything else I could give. I have sacrificed myself for my son. Eragon will live. He'll have his own troubles, as a Rider will, but he will live on. And eventually, he'll know, know who his true father is, and even while he doesn't know it now, he will live on, knowing that I love him. _Live on, for no matter how excruciating the pain feels, we yearn to see you triumph, even while we ourselves are gone. Live on, for no matter what happens in life, it will all be perfect in the end. _I softly whisper my seven words into his ear, and even softer tell him what they mean. My final gift. A smile of contentment breaks across my face, as I look into Eragon's eyes for the last time. I jump into the blackness of the void, unafraid. _Don't worry, Saphira, Selena. I am coming._


End file.
